LONDON: Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have joined more than 100 human rights groups in telling the UN not to adopt or endorse the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism.
The organizations sent UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and the High Representative for the UN Alliance of Civilizations Miguel Angel Moratinos, an open letter on April 3 — which has now been updated with more signatory groups from an initial 60 to 104 — to say that the IHRA definition could be used to shield the Israeli government from legitimate criticism of various policies.
The signatories said that antisemitism “poses real harm to Jewish communities around the world and requires meaningful action to combat it,” but added any attempt to take action should “not inadvertently embolden or endorse policies and laws that undermine fundamental human rights, including the right to speak and organize in favor of Palestinian rights and to criticize Israeli government policies.”
They added that the IHRA definition had “repeatedly” been “misused” to curb free speech and support for Palestinians before, and that two alternative definitions of antisemitism, the Jerusalem Declaration and the Nexus Document, were more robust.
As well as Amnesty and HRW, the signatories include Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, the American Civil Liberties Union, the International Federation for Human Rights, Americans for Peace Now, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, and Breaking the Silence.